Affairs

In May 1994 the opposition Liberal Party dumped John Hewson as its leader and replaced him with Alexander Downer. (See BIOGRAPHIES.) Prime Minister Paul Keating’s first attacks on Downer focused on his relatively privileged background. When Downer initially improved rather than fell in public opinion polls, Keating switched his attack to concentrate on Downer’s support for the monarchy and opposition to the republic movement. This was a relatively successful tactic, as within Downer’s party a split developed between monarchists and republicans. The initial split began when Andrew Parker, a member of Hewson’s staff, organized a republican cell within the Liberal Party. Tony Abbott, the Liberal’s most fervent monarchist, attacked both Parker and Hewson, accusing them of falling into Keating’s hands. Hewson replied that it was ridiculous to say that people in the Liberal Party should not have a range of views on an issue such as the republic. Eventually Downer was forced to banish Hewson to the opposition back bench for disloyalty.

A Time magazine poll revealed that if an election had been held during the first two weeks of July, the opposition, with 52% support, would have defeated the ruling Australian Labor Party (ALP). Downer’s popularity rose to 54%, while the approval rating of Prime Minister Keating remained steady at 38%. Keating dismissed the survey as irrelevant, and Downer agreed that recent history had shown that the only poll that counted was that on election day itself, the next still years in the future. Meanwhile, the minority Australian Democrats, led by Sen. Cheryl Kernot (see BIOGRAPHIES), sought to hold its pivotal centrist position in the Senate.

Former prime minister Bob Hawke was often in the headlines during 1994, much to the chagrin of the ALP, whose leaders believed, as Gough Whitlam put it, that Hawke should not have "fouled the nest" that nursed him. Hawke made a series of attacks on Keating, accusing him of describing Australia as "the arse-end of the world." Hawke also predicted that Downer would be the next prime minister of Australia. The most hurtful thrust by the former prime minister came with the publication of his memoirs, in which he repeated Keating’s alleged derogatory remarks about Australia and Asia and claimed that Keating’s supporters had been willing to see the ALP defeated at the general election in order to get rid of Hawke.

Australia’s scandals were small by Italian standards, perhaps, but revenge was in the air in 1994. "Finally nailed him" was the popular verdict on a large number of failed political figures and businessmen who had flourished as entrepreneurs in the booming 1980s. Both the Labor and Liberal parties had representatives falling from grace.

Brian Burke, who had been ALP premier of Western Australia and Australian ambassador to Ireland and the Vatican City State, was jailed for two years for defrauding Western Australia. He was convicted of having abused his travel account, the judge saying that it was essential that public confidence in government and its officials be maintained. Nor were the conservatives free from litigation. John Elliott, former Elders IXL Ltd. chairman and former president of the Liberal Party, joked about football as he arrived at the Melbourne Magistrates Court to face trial on a charge of stealing $A 66.5 million. Elliott, accused of sham foreign-exchange deals, appeared far from concerned at facing one of the highest theft charges in Australian history.

The relationship between politics and business proved a fatal mix in many cases. One of Australia’s richest men, Laurie Connell, was jailed after a nine-year investigation. His personal fortune of $A 30 million was gained from property investments during the 1980s. He donated hundreds of thousands of dollars to the ALP, entertained the U.K.’s Princess Anne during her visit to Australia for the 1987 America’s Cup, and boasted that he often gambled $A 500,000 a week at horse races. However, in 1994 Connell was found guilty of conspiracy to pervert the course of justice by paying a jockey, Danny Hobby, to stay out of Australia and away from police. Fellow Western Australian Alan Bond was also charged. He was put on trial for fraud connected with his art collection. Bond, whose Dallhold company had assets of $A 2.4 billion in 1988, pleaded not guilty to deception, fraud, and dishonesty over the purchase and sale of Édouard Manet’s painting La Promenade.

The most publicity, however, was generated by the case of fugitive property developer Christopher Skase, who fled from Queensland to Spain in 1990. Skase faced a trial in Australia on 32 charges arising from the collapse of his business empire. He refused to travel to Australia because he feared he would die on the journey as a result of a lung condition. He was arrested on an Australian warrant in January 1994 and held in a Majorca hospital while Spanish courts heard his extradition case.

In a bizarre comment on Australia’s declining welfare services for the aging, Veterans’ Affairs Minister Con Sciacca admitted that former servicemen were being "hunted" for war pensions. Some Filipinas were said to be marrying old men to obtain their health and pension benefits as their widows. The Federal Waste Watch Committee chairman, Sen. Paul Calvert, urged the Veterans’ Affairs Department to warn veterans to be on the lookout for such women.

Australian Bureau of Migration figures in 1994 revealed a 23% decline in arrivals of new settlers to 34,957 in the six months to Jan. 1, 1994. To make matters worse, a low proportion of immigrants from the U.S., the U.K., and Malaysia wished to become Australian citizens.

In early January scores of savage firestorms, at least some of which appeared to have been the result of arson, swept through New South Wales. Fueled by temperatures as high as 40° C (104° F) and winds exceeding 70 km/h (43 mph), the fires came within 16 km (10 mi) of Sydney Harbour. Only four people died, but the fires laid waste to some 500,000 ha (1.2 million ac) and temporarily drove more than 20,000 residents from their homes. It was estimated that the cost could reach as high as $A 200 million.

The Economy

Good news remained the order of the day for the Australian economy in 1994. Low inflation was recorded for month after month against a background of debate between the governor of the Reserve Bank, Bernie Fraser, and money market dealers regarding the most appropriate time to increase interest rates. Fraser assured Japanese bankers that he would not hesitate to raise rates should the economy show signs of overheating. The first signs of renewed inflationary pressures occurred in July, when the number of vacancies for skilled workers in Australia rose to a three-year high. The building trades and the computing industry recorded vacancies that were 4-10% above the previous year’s level. This, coupled with a dramatic rise in the number of home loans, led to warnings that the Reserve Bank ought to increase interest rates to nip in the bud any signs of boom.

Treasurer Ralph Willis delivered his first budget in May, promising a sustained recovery based on low inflation and a more competitive Australian economy. The budget was based on the optimistic expectation that a 14.5% surge in business investment, valued at $A 6.3 billion, would sustain further successive years of growth. The budget outlined new spending programs totaling more than $A 500 million in 1994-95 alone and set aside $A 1,460,000,000 over 10 years for a national land acquisition fund for Aborigines and Torres Strait Islanders; the Aborigines were also to receive a $A 499 million health-improvement program over a four-year period. This was to be used to provide basic infrastructure, such as housing, sewerage facilities, and water supplies. The increase followed a widespread debate about Aboriginal health, sparked by a visit to the outback by Sen. Graham Richardson. Richardson, who was appalled by what he saw, later resigned from Parliament, handing responsibilities for Aborigines over to Carmen Lawrence. Lawrence pointed out that Aborigines and Torres Strait Islanders had a life expectancy 17 years lower than that of other Australians and described the new funding as essential. Efforts to increase funding were defeated in the Senate in mid-November.

The major economic problem for Australia remained unemployment. Accordingly, the country increased its spending on labour-intensive projects by 15% in real terms in an attempt to cut unemployment. Critics said that the ALP planned to rely upon a statement called Working Nation as the blueprint for prosperity. This set up an agenda to help the long-term unemployed gain the skills and experience required for obtaining jobs. Key spending areas included $A 4 billion for expansion and improved delivery of employment subsidies and training programs. The government also planned to allocate $A 280 million to youth training for unemployed 15-17-year-olds. Major expenditure was also planned for defense. The government allocated $A 381 million for the Collins Class Submarine project in Adelaide and $A 441 million to launch frigates.

Asset sales reaping $A 2.4 billion were scheduled to pay for the new expenditures. The government planned to sell its remaining 75% equity in Qantas (the national airline), as well as its uranium stockpile, a substantial part of ANL Ltd., and all of Aerospace Technologies.

The government continued its policies of wage restraint, low interest rates, privatization, and a reliance on increased competition to generate economic growth. Keating forecast in July that Australia could look forward to a "rolling recovery," with inflation under control, and also said that the nation was on the threshold of a new and exciting period of participation in world trade. Russia’s Pacific region was particularly targeted as an area in which to place strategic investments; Australian companies invested in mining and fossil-fuel exploration and production, agriculture, and telecommunications. Indonesia was also viewed as a potentially valuable trading partner.

There was considerable public annoyance at the excessive and wasteful expense of paying for the travel and offices of former prime ministers. The bills run up by John Gorton, Whitlam, Malcolm Fraser, Hawke, and Dame Pattie Menzies (who as the widow of a former prime minister was eligible) totaled more than $A 1.2 million per year.

Foreign Affairs

Australia was busy building bridges--literally and metaphorically--in 1994, despite a continued rocky road in relations with Cambodia, North Korea, Vietnam, Indonesia, Malaysia, and China. In April Keating made visits to Laos, Thailand, and Vietnam, partly to help develop Australian links with those countries but mainly to open the Thai-Laos Friendship Bridge over the Mekong River. This bridge, which was designed to increase communications between Thailand and its neighbours, was built and financed by Australia as a showcase of engineering expertise. A dispute between Laos and Thailand over the exact position of the border between the two countries, however, overshadowed the celebrations surrounding the opening of the bridge. To make matters worse, on his continuing tour Keating made some undiplomatic remarks about Australia’s Vietnam veterans that aroused anger at home. While in Thailand Keating attended a memorial for Australians who died in World War II, but he declined to do likewise for the Vietnam War. The opposition and the Returned Servicemen’s League quickly attacked Keating. The president of the RSL, Maj. Gen. William ("Digger") James, said that the prime minister’s comments were wrong, were sad, and showed a misunderstanding of the suffering endured by the Australian soldiers in Vietnam.

On July 2 the Australian construction minister, Sen. Chris Schacht, opened a second bridge in Laos. The 190-m (623-ft), three-span bridge over the Ngum River replaced a ferry service. Like the Friendship Bridge, said Senator Schacht, the Tha Ngon Bridge would serve as an example of the technologies that Australia could offer countries in the region.

Australia’s relations with Vietnam were rougher than expected. After a successful visit by Keating, marked by a recognition of Australia’s substantial role in the building up of the Vietnamese economy, a follow-up visit by a second delegation turned into a public relations disaster. One of the members of the proposed delegation, a former Vietnamese citizen, Quang Luu, wrecked the prospects of the trip by an interview he granted to the BBC on June 27, during which he criticized Vietnam’s record on human rights. His behaviour was so potentially damaging that the Vietnamese government canceled his visa. In retaliation the Australian government scrapped the whole mission, complaining that Quang Luu’s statement to the BBC was really no more than a description of the aspirations of one member of the delegation and should not have been made the justification for effectively aborting the entire process.

Keating continued to have difficulties in foreign relations with China, Malaysia, and Indonesia, and the Australian prime minister was unable to resist the temptation to comment on the internal affairs of those countries. They all deeply resented what they considered to be Keating’s meddling, which usually came in response to questions by journalists about the Australian government’s attitude toward current events in Asia. Typical of the prime minister’s predicament was the question of how to deal with the decision of Indonesia to close three publications, DeTik, Editor, and Tempo, on the very eve of his departure for Jakarta. Keating commented on June 26 that while Australia was disappointed with the clampdown on the press in Indonesia, the links between the two countries remained strong.

On July 25 Keating announced that Australia would boost total humanitarian relief for Rwanda to $A 10 million. Medical personnel and water-purification equipment were dispatched to the refugee camps on the Rwanda-Zaire border. A.R.G. Griffiths